Bread On My Bed

Everyone in the house knows that eating on my bed is a big NO-NO. My sisters and niece like to hang out in my room even when I'm not around, and it's ok as long as they observe this Cardinal Rule. I don't like lying down on a bed of crumbs!

So when I arrived home one night to find this on my bed, my first thought was, somebody blatantly broke the Cardinal Rule!! A piece of bread on my bed!! Grrr...

It looked like one of those items you can get at Breadtalk. However, when I took hold of it to put it away, I realized with a jolt it was a keychain of some sort, designed to LOOK like a piece of bread! It even smells like one!

Somebody played a trick on me! And until now, no one has 'fessed up!

My List of 10 Saddest Fiction Books (Part 2 of 2)

A couple of people asked me how I define "saddest fiction books." Simply put, these books either made me feel markedly sad, depressed me with their depiction of the deplorable side of life/human nature, or maybe moved me to tears just a wee bit.

I just realized that all the books in the list are bestsellers. Here's the rest of it:

6. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (my Mom's book). This details the private lives of three generations of Clearys, but at its heart is the ill-fated romance of Meggie Cleary and Fr. Ralph de Bricassart, a Roman Catholic priest. The book likens humans to a thorn bird, which, from the moment it is born, searches for a thorn tree, impales itself upon a thorn, and sings among its branches until it dies. Translation: we knowingly inflict pain upon ourselves with certain choices we make...Still we do it!

7. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (bought it out of curiosity). Dr. David Henry delivers his own twins, keeps his perfectly healthy boy, asks his nurse to take the girl away to an insitution when he realizes she has Down's syndrome, and tells his wife that their baby girl died. He does this for what he thinks are right reasons. Imagine being burdened with this terrible secret your whole life -- the guilt and regret permeating and slowly eroding your marriage.

8. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James (I collect her novels). 22-year old Cordelia Gray recently inherited a detective agency. For her first case, she is hired by a famous scientist, Sir Ronald Callender, to shed some light on his son's suicide a few weeks earlier. This is my favorite of all of P.D. James' murder mysteries: grounded, restrained, realistic, but so impactful.

9. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (borrowed it from my sis). Mitch rediscovers his college professor from nearly 20 years ago in the last months of the old man's life. This chronicles Mitch's Tuesday visits with Morrie during his dying days, where they would talk about love, life, and what truly matters. (Not sure if this book is categorized as fiction, but I included it in my list anyway.)

10. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger (borrowed it from my sis). Henry is afflicted with "Chrono Displacement Disorder": at random times, he suddenly disappears and finds himself in the past or future, and he never knows where he will turn up. Clare is his wife - they first met when she was 6, and he in his 40s! It's poignant and beautifully-written. However, I definitely would NOT want to be a time traveler's wife. It's just like being in a long-distance relationship, but infinitely more complex! :p

A Day in the Life

I've started watching Season 7 of 24 on DVD. While its storyline is not as heart-stopping as previous seasons', it's gripping enough to keep me glued to the TV for hours on end.

I wonder - is there a person alive who is just like Jack Bauer?? One thing's for sure, anyone would want Jack Bauer around when in mortal danger and there seems to be no way out. He's able to bring to safety just about anyone he sets his mind to save! Talk about having 9 lives (or more).

It's not easy to be President of the United States. So many tough decisions to make, decisions that could ultimately mean life or death, misery or redemption for millions of people around the world. Being the leader of the most powerful nation on earth is a tremendous responsibility! I don't think I'd ever want to become US President. Hehehe, as if :p

Meanwhile, I continue to watch a day in the life of Jack Bauer. I'm just grateful my days aren't that long haha.

(Weekends are just too fleeting though.)

My List of 10 Saddest Fiction Books (Part 1 of 2)

In no particular order:

1. She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb (given to me as a gift). An Oprah Book Club selection, it covers 31 years of Dolores Price's life: divorce, mental illness, violence, self-image problems, obesity, loneliness, physical and emotional abuse. I found this book downright depressing!

2. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (recommended by an officemate). Teenager Susie Salmon is the narrator. She's dead -- raped, hacked, and buried by a seemingly harmless neighbor. She narrates how the crime was committed, and how her family and friends dealt with the tragedy. The book is written so subtly yet so powerfully, it affected me so much that I gave my copy away.

3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (given to me as a gift). Set in Afghanistan, this is the story of Amir, the son of a wealthy businessman, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children, the boys are inseparable, like brothers, until one unspeakable event alters everything forever. It's beautiful, heartbreaking, and moving. I've never re-read it though. I also didn't watch the movie.

4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (bought it because I loved his other book). It focuses on the tumultuous lives of two Afghan women born a generation apart - Mariam and Laila -- how they are brought together by war, loss, and danger, forming a most unlikely friendship and an enduring bond. This and The Kite Runner cemented Khaled Hosseini's position as one of my favorite authors!

5. A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks (lent by a friend). This is the love story of Jamie, a shy sweet girl dying of leukemia, and of Landon a rich, typical teenage boy. Though the novel is very well-written, I'm not too keen on love stories where the boy or girl dies. The movie didn't do the book justice at all - it didn't even depict the "walk to remember" properly!

Part 2 to follow...

The Fantasticks

We're set to watch this Repertory play tomorrow!

In a clever reverse of the Romeo and Juliet story, two fathers put up a wall between their houses to ensure that their children fall in love, because they know that children always do what their parents forbid. After the children do fall in love, they discover their fathers' plot and they each go off and experience things in the world. They return to each other and the love they had, having learned from the world, bringing to life a funny and quite touching story of innocence, and of knowledge.

The Fantasticks is one of the longest-running musical shows in the history of American theater. Created by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, the original production opened in May 1960 at a small theater in New York’s Greenwich Village. The musical tradition lives on -- The Fantasticks continues to be staged to this day, and is in fact now on its 50th year. That's over 17,000 performances since it opened, wow!

More than anything, I look forward to listening to the songs, which include timeless pieces like "Try To Remember," "They Were You," and "Soon It's Gonna Rain."

Yay!

Ice Age 3-Triggered Musings

We watched Ice Age 3 last Friday -- I enjoyed it thoroughly, it made me laugh so hard! I didn't get to watch 1 and 2, but I think I would've liked them as well.

This blog post is not about the movie though. It's about things I didn't use to do that I now find myself doing and enjoying, thanks to the influence of family and friends. Here are some of them:

1) Watching certain kinds of movies. Generally, I'm not into films where ordinary objects come to life, where living things which are not supposed to talk actually talk (don't ask me why because I have NO IDEA). The ones I do like I like mostly because of their musical score (Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, The Little Mermaid -- I know all the songs by heart). I'm also not a fan of sci-fi films. But nowadays, I find myself watching such movies (e.g. Ice Age, Wall-e, Star Trek, etc.) - and actually liking them a lot.

2) Eating certain kinds of food. Salads and steaks are not really my thing, but I've grown to appreciate them as a result of the influence of the Friday gang. I'm yearning to go back to Elbert's where I had a delectable steak experience (it's my favorite steakhouse by far), to Antonio's Tagaytay, and to Wagyu Stone Grill in Eastwood. And I have to say Old Vine's 'Tessie Tomas Salad' and Lolo Dad's 'Only for the Rich Salad' are simply scrumptious!

3) Reading fantasy books. I wrote about this in a previous entry. It's all thanks to my sister's friend Jay who keeps on recommending these gripping novels. (Sam, if you're reading this, Jay is recommending this fantasy series about a group of modern-day assassins. Interesting! I'll give you the details as soon as I have them).

4) Listening to other types of music. This is quite refreshing! In this area, my biggest influencer is my 11-year old niece Zoe. It all started this one time I borrowed her iPod and started listening to her kind of music. Some songs grew on me after several repeats. Others I liked on the spot. I also found out she actually composes, and I listened to her compositions as well -- WOW! Every now and then I borrow her iPod to listen to songs she's recently added.

It's always nice to expand one's horizon, and to discover that one can actually take delight in things or experiences one didn't really pay attention to before. I guess the same thing can be said for people...but I think this merits an entirely separate discussion :p

Happiness!

Just this morning - a few days after the hustle and bustle of securing approval for a 3-week leave, ensuring my mom is given a clean bill of health for travel, and buying tickets - I realized that I am so looking forward to my US vacation this August, and I am sooo ready for it. It suddenly dawned on me that I'll actually have three weeks of bumming around, no work, and all play! Three weeks! YIPEEE!

I'm happy to take time off from work, and I feel reassured with Vinchi, Migs, and Grace around to take care of the team.

I'm especially excited to get together with my relatives, spend time with old friends, shop at my favorite stores, try my luck (again) at the casinos (a.k.a. slot machines), and just frolic about! The only thing I'm not too keen on is going to this charity ball that my mom and grandmother are expecting me to attend. Hmm...I'm already piecing together an escape strategy hehehe.

There's a caveat to this vacation though: I might enjoy myself too much that I wouldn't want to return hahaha.

Woohoo!